PARIS.- Invited by Christie’s, Mathieu Lehanneur presents 50 Seas, a collection featuring fifty enameled ceramic works inspired by the many nuances and shades of the sea: from the Gulf of Guinea to the Hudson’s Bay, from Antarctica’s Weddell Sea to the Bay of Bengal.

“Although most of the earth’s surface is covered with water, often we only see a simplified and reduced impression of it. The infinite colour variations of the water reveal our planet’s true complexity”, explains Mathieu Lehanneur.

Showcased in the Parisian salons of the prestigious auction house, 50 Seas crystallises the global colour scheme of the world’s liquid environment. Mathieu Lehanneur has selected a chromatic topology of the ocean in order to pay homage to its subtleties. Using high-definition satellite photography, the designer has identified fifty points across the earth and materialised them within large ceramic pieces. As though forming an aquatic relief, the works are enamelled to reproduce the delicate nuances of the ocean. Each piece is unique to suggest the geographic specificity of its environment.

"We have to accustom our eyes and our mind with the subtle disparities of things. Eskimos have 50 words to define the snow, I selected 50 shades to define the sea" says Mathieu Lehanneur.

In continuation of his Liquid Marble and Ocean Memories series, 50 Seas seems to hesitate between solid and liquid, as though suspended in a poetic state of metamorphosis. For 50 Seas, Mathieu Lehanneur has adapted his unique craft procedure to enamelled ceramic, creating a collection of wall ornaments. In this new series, Lehanneur reveals a unique approach to design fusing decorative arts and high technology.

"The whole is the sum of the singularities. This is true of both humans and the seas.” Mathieu Lehanneur continues.

While Lehanneur focused on uncovering an unprecedented representation of the world's population through his previous work Age of the World, here, the designer undertakes a cartography that reveals the uniqueness of its geography.

At the forefront of the international design scene, Mathieu Lehanneur is one of the few designers of his generation with a genuine multi-disciplinary approach to creativity: his projects stretch the realms of product design and objet to architecture, craft and technology.

Lehanneur thrives on creating spectacular projects that are intended to enchant and to encourage wellbeing. His work defies traditional descriptions of ‘design’, ‘science’ or ‘art’-led.

The designer’s passion and skill lie in the exploration of the natural and technical possibilities of an object in order to create designs which are functional, but which appeal to the physical and emotional senses.

Ranked among the ‘100 World top designers and influencers’ by Wallpaper and Surface magazines, Mathieu Lehanneur is described as the ‘champion of intellectual agility in the field of contemporary design’ by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and design at MoMA-NY.

Mathieu Lehanneur’s works can be found among some of the most renowned public and private collections including the MoMA-NY and MoMA San Francisco, the Pompidou Centre and the Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris.

Mathieu Lehanneur’s office collaborates with a number of prestigious brands across a wide variety of sector including Nike, Veuve Clicquot, Audemars Piguet, Kenzo, Poltrona Frau, Pullman Hotels, Cartier, AirFrance, Schneider Electric, JCDecaux, Becton Dickinson and Sony. Lehanneur is also a partner in several startups in the areas of technology and transport.

Since 2015, Mathieu Lehanneur has been the Chief Designer of Huawei.

Mathieu Lehanneur has earned numerous awards including the ‘Grand Prix’ for creativity, awarded by the City of Paris, or the ‘Best Invention Award’ by US magazine Popular Science for ‘Andrea’, a plant home air filtration system, created in partnership with Harvard University and based on studies developed by NASA.

In 2009, the designer was invited to present his approach at the TED Global conference and, in 2012, Gestalten editions published a book dedicated to his work. A retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Grand Hornu - Innovation and Design Centre, in Belgium.

Lehanneur latest news include the interior design of Maison Kitsuné's flagship store in New York; a series of limited edition pieces "Ocean Memories" edited by Carpenters Workshop Gallery; a collection of furniture edited by his brand; a temporary museum in Shanghai for the Swiss watchmaker luxury brand Audemars Piguet; his work Liquid Marble at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London; the interior design of Café Mollien in the Louvre Museum; the launch of a new concept of solar street lighting furniture during the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris COP-21.

He won the competition for the interior design of the Grand Palais, Paris, and he is currently working on multiple projects as an hybrid engine boat, a foldable electric bike, the interior design for hotels, stores and public spaces, as technological and pharmaceutical design ...